"There is no single pill we get to take to get this right," said Herkert, explaining a shore-up effort will include vendor negotiations and analyzing store categories with an eye toward reducing the number of products offered.

Supervalu said its plan to expand the Save-A-Lot store base is a push to soften the blow of future economic recessions and cater to what appears to be a long-term turn toward thriftiness by many customers. Part of the plan emphasizes putting the cheaper Save-A-Lot stores, about 75% of which are franchised to licensees, in neighborhoods where they will compete with pricier traditional grocery stores.

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In this report, you'll discover the benefits of such an approach, including optimizing the architecture to make full use of modern network capabilities and using commercial applications to support non-differentiating operational processes wherever possible.